Miles Away (Carrion #1)(43)
Miles’s mouth creased in amusement as he watched Letty's feisty but pint-sized father scramble off of the couch. Slowly, Miles turned his neck, peering over at Letty. She had the look of the devil in her eyes as she arched her left eyebrow. After a moment she snapped her eyes from Miles's face to her father's. Her voice segued her father straight into the reality of the situation.
"Knock it off!" Letty snapped at her father, casting him a stern look.
Juan stopped, dead in his tracks, staring back at his daughter in confusion. Sliding his tongue over his lips, Juan stretched his neck in frustration as a crack popped from his knuckles. Pointing at Miles, Juan griped, “He’s a Capadonno, Letty!”
Juan continued to glare at Miles in deep hostility. “You know what they’re like!”
Letty rolled her eyes as her boots clicked against the hardwood floor.
“You’re right, Daddy…” Letty said as a shocked look crossed both Juan and Miles’s faces.
Clearing his throat, Juan smiled. Adjusting his shirt, he gave Miles a smug look. Juan quipped, “That was easy.”
Miles’s eyes went wide as he saw the look on Letty’s face morph into something else entirely. Stamping her heel against the floor, once, twice, three times, Miles began to laugh as Letty’s temper came unhinged.
“You didn’t let me finish!” Letty yelled, as she waved a finger sassily at her father. “I do know alllllll about the Capadonnos, Papi! I work for them!”
Oh, shit… here comes the crazy, Miles thought, trying to wipe the smile from his face.
A look of total mortification crossed Juan’s face. “Don’t say that! People are gonna think my daughter is mobbed up!”
A laugh ripped from Miles’s mouth as his eyes went wild. His eyes tearing up, Miles couldn’t control his amusement. Miles tried to wipe the smile from his face as Juan gave him a scathing look. Throwing her hands up in the air, Letty stormed through the living room as she berated her father.
“Seriously? No one in their right mind is gonna think I’m mobbed up!” Letty stamped her boot against the floor. “You love lumpin’ people together! That’s stereotypical. Just because one Capadonno likes to butcher people, you think EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM. ARE. ANIMALS!” Letty’s foot stamped against the floor with each word.
“Letty! The Capadonnos… They are the cause of all the problems that this town has. If it wasn’t for them, Carrion would be a quiet, peaceful town.”
Letty rolled her eyes as she circled around the living room, straightening up as she went.
“Miles is different. I told you that a million times, I’ll keep tellin’ ya ’til I’m blue in the face. Now you simma’ down, I’ve got a bone to pick with you…”
“Wit’ me? Why?” Juan asked as if the possibility that he did something wrong was absolutely ridiculous.
A frustrated scream flew out of Letty’s mouth as she glared at her father. Suddenly, the language that was rolling off of her tongue had changed from English to Spanish. Miles watched as Letty’s hands moved as quickly as her mouth did, the tempo of her tirade increasing with every syllable. Juan barked back, sounding as if he was on the defensive as they went back and forth, Miles understanding not a word of what it was that they were saying.
Jesus… Miles thought. Where the f*ck are the subtitles when you need them.
G stared at his mother and grandfather seemingly unfazed. Clearly he was used to this sort of behavior. “One? Mama?” G called out. But Juan was too busy being terrorized by his daughter on the subject of the missing letters.
“C’mon, man… Let’s go in the kitchen and stay outta trouble,” Miles said to G as he picked up the grocery bags off the floor.
“Trouble. One’s in trouble!”
“He sure is! Your momma’s scary when she’s mad.”
“I know, haha!” G said as he slapped Miles on the arm. “Mile funny!”
“I am a hoot,” Miles admitted. “Let’s go get this dinner started. They’ll be along soon.”
Miles gave an amused look back at Letty as she followed her father up the stairway that led to the second floor.
“Papi! Las letres! ?Cómo pudiste?”
As Letty chased her father up the stairs, demanding answers, Miles shook his head in amusement as he disappeared down the hallway.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“HOW MANY?” THE HOSTESS asked Landon as he walked through the front door of Tia Marie’s Ristorante. Landon smiled at the pretty blonde as his brothers followed him through the door. As Dustin and Knox crossed the threshold, there was a notable shift in the hostess’s demeanor.
“Mr. Capadonno,” the hostess said with eyes as big as saucers as she looked Knox’s way. “Dustin,” the hostess nodded at Dustin. Landon thought that the hostess looked scared.
“Lila,” Knox said in a heady voice as he dug his hands into the pockets of the jeans he borrowed from Dustin.
Dustin nodded his head at the hostess that he clearly knew well. Grabbing three leather folders that contained the full service menus for the Velvet Room, Lila led the way, Knox’s eyes maneuvering down the curve of her waist as she moved. Bypassing the dining room, Lila led the way up a spiral staircase that led to the second floor of the establishment. Winding down the intricately decorated hallways, Lila turned left stopping at a pair of handsome leather double doors. Giving Dustin a charged glance, Lila pushed the right panel of the door open, smiling seductively as she pushed upon the soft leather of the door.